Subdivisions of the Spanish Empire

Spanish colonial, and early post-colonial, administrative council which governed a municipality

court of appeals in Spain and its empire replaced by territorial audiences by decree of January 26, 1834

thumb | 220x124px | right A captaincy ( , , ) is a historical administrative division of the former Spanish and Portuguese colonial empires. It was instituted as a method of organization, directly associated with the home-rule administrations of medieval feudal governments in which the monarch delimited territories for colonization that were administered by men of confidence.

Ayuntamiento () is the general term for the town council, or cabildo, of a municipality or, sometimes, as is often the case in Spain and Latin America, for the municipality itself. is mainly used in Spain; in Latin America is also for municipal governing bodies, especially the executive ones, where the legislative body and the executive body are two separate entities. In Catalan-speaking parts of Spain, municipalities generally use the Catalan cognate, , while Galician ones use the word , Astur-Leonese and Basque . Since is a metonym for the building in which the council meets, it also transla